Paul Montgomery

June 19, 1999 Montgomery died of heart attack while vacationing in Seattle. Montgomery was survived by his wife, Michele, his parents, and siblings.

Play's next consumer-oriented product was Gizmos, a suite of utilities, games and multimedia software for Windows personal computers. PC Magazine said Gizmos was one of the "Best Products of 1998".

Play created Trinity as the next-generation Video Toaster for the Windows personal computer platform. Trinity included real-time 3D video effects, digital component video switcher, chroma-keyer, still and video clip store, character generator, paint system, and non-linear video editor. After several lengthy delays, Trinity shipped in August 1998 to wide critical acclaim. To many in the industry, Trinity became the logical successor to the Video Toaster. Play also acquired 3D animation software developer Electric Image in November 1998. Electric Image animation system was re-launched for both Mac and Windows platforms as Electric Image Universe.

In the 1996 book, The Age of Videography, Montgomery was cited as one of the 25 most influential people in the history of videography. Montgomery received a Primetime Emmy award for his personal contributions in creating the Video Toaster. He is listed as an inventor on U.S. patents 6,380,950 and 6,941,517 regarding low-bandwidth television.

Play's first product, the Snappy Video Snapshot, was released in April 1995. Snappy was a still-image digitizer which could take video input from a VCR, camcorder, TV or any video source, and capture true-color (24-bit) high-quality digital still images. Snappy was the first mainstream video input device for Windows personal computers, with Play selling over US$25 million of Snappy in its first year. Byte Magazine awarded Snappy its Technical Excellence award in December 1995, stating "Every once in a while, we see a product so impressive, it makes us rethink an entire category. That was certainly the case with Play Inc.'s Snappy."

In 1994, Montgomery and Jenison split. Montgomery left, taking most of NewTek's programmers and some top marketing staff with him. After several months, the group founded Play Incorporated together with Amiga software leader Digital Creations and video hardware developer Progressive Image Technologies, and focused their efforts on the Microsoft Windows platform.

The NewTek team was featured in USA Today, Time, Newsweek, Forbes and Fortune as well as being dubbed "revolutionaries" by Tom Brokaw on NBC Nightly News and featured as "the bad boys of video" in Rolling Stone Magazine. In 1993, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences awarded Montgomery and the other inventors of the Video Toaster a Primetime Emmy award. That same year, Fortune estimated the privately held company's sales at US$25 million.

Although Montgomery started his career in real estate and artist promotion, in the early 1980s he became enamored by technology and personal computers, in particular with the Commodore Amiga. In 1985, the Amiga computer featured graphics, audio and multi-tasking capabilities greater than other personal computers of its time, making it a suitable platform for early 3D animation, video production and audio production products.

Joseph Paul Montgomery (June 5, 1960 – June 19, 1999 ) was an American entrepreneur and inventor. In the mid 1980s, he was among the first to see the potential of personal computer technology in the field of video production and 3D animation. As Vice President of NewTek and Co-Founder and President of Play, Inc., Montgomery drove the creation of the first widely-successful digital video products, including the Emmy-award-winning Video Toaster and the Snappy Video Snapshot.